KENYA

Finally! I guess most of you do know that i am in kenya now... nevertheless, i want to mention it once more...I'M IN KENYA!! Its been a good 4 years (almost), and it feels great! I couldn't stop laughing at how nothing at all has changed...i mean, not only the buildings or the trees.... everything at home too. The sugar is kept in the same drawer...n my dad still wears the same slippers at home! Anyway....Its nice to be back. I wont be around for the next 2 days. Going on an over-night safari for new years. So, i wish u all a very HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR! Hope u have a great time...and may you get the best from the coming year...

Signing off...

Touched

Today....26th december 2005, marks the first anniversary of a day that devasted thousands of people...took away beloved ones, stole belongings, extinguished the candle of hope...changed some lives forever. This day, we dedicate to the victims of the killer wave - the tsunami. I would never have posted this had it not been for something i just watched on tv now... Something that showed how people try to make a difference...a gesture that could only show the goodness in people...for other people. 2 things i watched infact... the first, was a concert by A.R.Rahman at karaikaal (close to nagapattinam, one of the most affected areas). They had this whole group of singers, with all instrumentalists and stuff by the seaside....and they sang. For the crowd...which was marvellous... the kind of welcome singers get in our world is something truly respectable...they're people who reach out...everyone loves music.

The second was this song...that was done by many many singers together... S.P.Balasubramanium, Sujatha, chitra, karthik, unni menon, malgudi shubha, Usha utup, Vijay yesudas, Srinivas...and one or two more whose names i don't know....they made up this song dedicated to the sea...all wearing white (that really turns me on...when albums have people wearing white)...with the waves as the backdrop...it was beautiful....very touching. Things like these sometimes do re-kindle the flame of hope...or atleast make the affected people know there's still more to life...that people do care.... its very heart-warming.

Well, i guess one thing thats totally unpredictable is nature....and i realised that more when rains hit chennai hard and made all our exams get postponed...and drowned villages...and led to stampedes...and deaths.
I would like to end this post with the lines of a song...a beautiful compostion by rahman...its from the movie 'kannathil muthamitaal'...Vellai pookal

Vellai pookal ulagam yengum malarave
Vidiyum bhoomi amaidikaage vidigave
Manmel manjal velicham, vizhugave
Malare sombal murithu ezhugave....

The exact meaning of those words, i may not be able to give you...but it potrays the idea of peace...white flowers, tranquility, the yellow sunlight, flowers stretching and waking up...

God....I'm feeling so touched. Bless all...

Signing off...

Saving Stranded Divya!

With reference to my previous post... thank you all for the 'sympathy'! Something really funny struck me when i was listening to people react to the incident... almost all of them asked me "didn't anyone come to save you?" And all i said was...'who do you expect would come?'

And my mind raced... to having a great Captain Jack sparrow hang down from one of the trees with a rope... his characteristic hat on, with his one-bulleted gun....! Or... a William wallace wearing his skirt...with all his long hair...and his spear...trotting into the street closing in on the creature...! Or...Mr.Archillies running in from the rear end of the street with his armour and shield and one big sword, charging in my direction....! OR... or... Legolas and Aragorn both screaming...on horses...one with the ethereal air and the blonde hair...the other with the hard looking bearded face and the black hair..Bow and arrow...and anduril the sword...coming from opposite sides of the street! Or perhaps, all of them together, appearing out of thin air??!! LOL LOL... can someone please tell people... Life's not one big Tamil/Hindi movie... its funny that even though i mention only tamil/hindi movie, all the heroes i've mentioned come from english movies... but i guess thats whom i would have preferred ;-) ...so all the right-on-time saving happens just in the movies....!

For those of you who didn't quite understand the 'heroes'
Captain Jack Sparrow - Johnny Depp (pirates of the carribean)
William Wallace - Mel Gibson (Brave heart) i don particularly like Mel, but i liked Will Wallace.
Archillies - Brad Pitt (Troy)
Legolas and Aragorn - Orlando Bloom and Viggo Mortensen (LOTR)

BTW... Merry christmas! Ho Ho Ho!
(I've always wanted to celebrate christmas...with all the snow and the hollies and the tree...and the gifts! Just for the 'effect'... Sigh...someday! Definitely! For that, i gotto be in a place where there is snow.....)

Thassallll

Signing off....

Reality Bites?

Murphy's law states that

If something will go wrong, it will.

Talk about...being at the wrong place at the wrong time...
Talk about...some things being pre-destined to happen at a particular time, no matter what.
Talk about...how smooth you're day had gone so far, and experiencing something the next moment that ruins that feeling...
Talk about the phrase.... REALITY BITES

Well... maybe its not reality, maybe its just a DOG. Bloody hell.... had to happen. And my motto for life...

I HATE DOGS, I HATE DOGS, I HATE DOGS, I HATE DOGS, I HATE DOGS... tends to infinity times infinity.
For those of you who don't agree with that, no offence, but dogs really suck, and their teeth suck more.......... no wonder i've always hated them.

Signing off....

Long winding road...

Exam time's here again... a small thought....

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep
-Robert Frost




Is that how i'm going to feel through out my life? Its funny.... the road just doesn't end... can't reach a summit... can't culminate in... paradise. So, we design our notion of paradise....and live with that...Human nature... the mind... wow.

Signing off....

Double birthday!Double fun?

I always associate this time of the year with birthdays... december, january... birthday season. And today, being December 12th, we acknowledge the birthdays of 2 'thalaivaas' that we know...! One.... thalivaa Rajnikanth!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I dont know how old he is, but definitely looks 10 years older than his true age....Happy birthday to him, and please may he not try concealing his age and rugged looks any further... its just not nice.And the second... thalaivaa Bharat! Happy birthday tsb! (who apparently is being mistaken to be much younger than he is! Sure appearances are deceptive!) I hope you didn't get offended by what i said about thalaivaa rajini... we all know you're a hardcore fan! Anyway, have a great day, and wonderful year to come. Just don't try baking a cake... and making the fire alarm ring...! ;-) We all wish we could parcel some ratna cafe sambar vadai, but that doesn't seem too feasible through international courier, so, adjust panniko! Have a blast! (atleast try...even though your exams start tomorrow!)

May both of them live to blow many many candles and bug their grandchildren to their bones!
;-)

Signing off....

Germany - 2006

Its here again! 2006....in Germany! FOOTBALL WORLDCUP!! I don't know why i am already getting so excited...well, its because the 2006 draw just got over... wow wow, the groups are out! They do look quite reasonable...though it is quite obvious which team is going to qualify from most of the groups... anywayz, there's many many months remaining for june 9th, 2006... so i don't think much can be done. And i hate chennai for bringing in this whole set top box scheme... damn damn! There were times in kenya when we'd all sit in one room (all the kids in the colony) and switch all the lights off....and have an adrenalin rush for 90mins...man, good old times...and we'd scream and shout...i remember that was the time the finals had France Vs Brazil... and i was supporting brazil that time... France won. Zidane's 2 goals and Petit's one... Well, that was the last time i ever supported Brazil... they're a great team... but i still cant like them! And the world cup before that, the finals had Italy Vs Brazil (1994)... and thats when i fell in love with Italy...mainly cuz of Roberto Baggio... That match ended in penalty shoot outs....and Baggio missed a goal for Italy...But he was always good...And even though they haven't been playing too well recently....my heart still goes out to them! Anyway... am sure those of you who're not too interested in soccer are definitely yawning..... More abt the draw here....

Favourite footballers, teams (countries), clubs in the comments section?

Signing off...

!!!!!!!!!!!

Well...exclamations...excitement...a feeling of completeness!!! Soccer ball...oh man. Am sure not many of you love football...but hell, its one thing i love and enjoy...and i got a new football today!!! Yiippppeee!!!!!!! My old one just had to burst... :( Am just so happy....thats it. I don't want to write more... Nidhee, thanx a million for accompanying me and putting up with my 'no, this shop wont do, this ball wont do, lets go somewhere else' tantrums... and Nilesh and bharat...am sure you understand how it feels... :)

Yours 'this is the best feeling i've had in months'ly
Signing off...

Comfortably numb

Have you ever been in a situation where words no longer have a meaning...?
When language can't help you express your thoughts...
When you think there's no longer a verbal mode of communication...
When you feel like the whole world's closing in on you...
When you think everything around you is just shattering to a million pieces...
When you have to force yourself to say you're fine...when you're not, just because the person you're saying that to means the world to you...
When you're feeling so broken...and you're still smiling because there's nothing you can do about it?
When you feel like running...just running...and never looking back.
When out of all the pain and confusion...and nothingness...someone makes you laugh...
When you leave things to take their course...because there's nothing you can do to change them...rather than accept them.
When you're helpless......
trying to be....comfortably numb...immune....careless...

Really can't blame them though...

Signing off....

Shall we dance?

I don't know why i've been starting my recent posts with the same line...just one more time - Another exam postponed... Am sure this is isn't getting us anywhere! And...my exam was s'posed to be tomorrow...which means i'd studied quite a bit! Couldn't they have anounced the postponement yesterday... anywayz, STOP.

Well...this post is titled 'shall we dance?' I don't think am writing a movie review...i watched that movie only for Richard Gere. Man...what charm, what charisma... Anywayz... this post is about an incident i found extremely laughhable...but at the same time, it was an 'experience'!

My cousin, who runs a very successful software business, was holding a get-together/party/whatever to celebrate his 10th wedding anniversary. I thought the party was going to be at their house...and was planning to skive cuz i had to study... (actually i had enough time, but they stay too far away, and i wasn't too interested). But when my cousin's wife called me up, and said the party was at 'the rain-tree hotel'... i really couldn't say no... because that places look awesome from the outside, n is 2 mins from my house by walk!

So we were all there on time, actually the first people to arrive. He'd made it a family cum friends party. So the first hour passed... And the food...was super cool. Its always cool when you're not paying for it! And i was sitting like a good girl with all my 'family' folks... aunts and uncles...i was the 'representative' for my family,cuz neither my mom, nor my dad is here. SO we were having small talk after dinner...and suddenly someone grabbed the mic and said 'the dance floor's open to anyone who wishes to have some fun'. The music started...

I wasn't too surprised when people just screamed and shouted and started dancing right away... but i was DEFINITELY not going to be among them. My 7 year old nephew (cousin's son) made a whole scene by pulling my hand in an attempt to drag me to dance... n when it didn't work, he pulled my dupatta! Now that... was something that didn't look to good... cuz my dupatta pulled my hair 'band' out...which left my hair lose, and i had a very strong feeling i looked like a hulligan in a mess...well, he gave up on me... n i just sat down again and was just watching people dance. There were these 2 particular guys (both in black) who were really VIGOROUS dancers...they reminded me of nilesh. More particularly, Nilesh in black! (anyone wud remember that 3/4th sleeve black, slightly shiny t-shirt he used to wear...) Then, one of my other cousins, who had just come from work, got her dinner and sat next to me. So we were kinda catching up...and suddenly, I heard this voice saying 'excuse me'...and i looked up. It was one of the guys in black...

'Will you dance with me?' Oh my... those words i was dreading! He had both his hands out-stretched and it looked funny (was he beggin for alms..?)... i definitely DID NOT want to do this... so i said 'No, please...' and he was like 'please, just for sometime...please'. I had my mind set... i was not going to do this...NO WAY! And then it started from behind... my cousins, my aunts, uncles, everyone... 'hey just go dance for sometime, wats the big deal?' My mind was
screaming NOOOOO...i was literally pushed off my chair by one of my cousins...and i guess those out-stretched hands just caught hold of mine, and thats how i got to the dance floor!

After that... the whole world was a hurricane... i just remember that the black-tshirt guy kept twriling me round and round and round...and kept making me twirl him...It was in that moment that i realised that when you're dancing, truly, its enough if one out of the pair actually knew what had to be done...and how to do it. i couldn't even hear the music cuz my head was spinning like crazy...I was so unbalanced, and fazed, and in such a 'life's a one big circle'situation that i needed to HOLD on to something...and... the guy always had his palms open and ready! Gawd...after sometime i started to think it was an old trick! If u understand what i mean...

I finally BROKE out of the twirls... and said 'thankyou very much' and walked away (in my mind, i was running as fast as my legs could carry me!)...HUFF, over. I sat down...my head still spinning. sat there watching for sometime...laughing at those who were holding glasses in heir hands and trying not to pour the alcoholic contents while they 'danced'. It was amusing... i got
bored of watching drunk people dance...and eventually, told my cousin i was leaving...i was walking out of the door...and the black t-shirt guy just appeared out of thin air and said 'thankyou' and shook my hand...I just smiled...weakly...cuz even the sight of him was making my head spin! Heavens...

I then walked up to the roof top of the hotel... which looks beautiful from my terrace...so i really wanted to see it. And... it was one of the most beautiful restaurants i'd ever seen... and i came back home... long evening, dirty dancing!

Points to be noted :

a) The guy was six rounds into his drinking... so he was probably half drunk.
b)Mr.Black T was married.
c)We weren't waltzing...(GAWD, one of my friends just assumed we were having a slow romantic dance...arrgghh)...indeed the songs were kajrare, dhoom,kohi kahe...
c)He danced with ALL the aunties and paatis in the room before asking me and my cousin to dance... and my cousin, after my feedback, told him she wouldn't allow herself to get twirled...and just danced with him WITHOUT holding his hands... GAWD.

(btw... i knew the guy was 6 rounds into drinking...cuz my uncle came and told
us a minute after he'd taken my aunt on the roller coaster ride...n my unc din
look too happy!;-) )

bottom line....Dancing's not my cup of tea...but it'd probably be more fun if i was dancing with the right person ;-) n not getting twirled so much....!!!Life's one big circle.... seriously.

One last thing...today is SHRUTI's birthday...vm. So shruti, HAPPY
BIRTHDAY...may u live to blow 1001 candles...have a blast!!! And this msg... is
from all of us.

Signing off...